Crime & Safety
Carbone: Maserati Was Cheaper Than a Honda
The DWI suspect is still jailed, and his pleas for a free lawyer go for naught.
Joseph Carbone's plea for legal aid has fallen on deaf ears with yet another judge, but the jailed Syosset resident didn't leave court Monday morning without offering yet another refrigerator door-worthy quote.
The 49-year-old Carbone, who is facing a felony DWI charge after being stopped in his Maserati on June 9, appeared before Judge William J. O'Brien in Mineola's District Court Part 9. As before with Judge Erica Prager, Carbone claimed that he is indigent and in need of free representation.
Carbone said that Prager denied him counsel "according to her assumption about the car I was driving."
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When O'Brien questioned why a man with such an expensive car can't afford to pay for representation, Carbone remained as defiant as ever.
"So, I was driving a high-end sports car," Carbone said. "I got a good deal on it. It was cheaper than driving a Honda."
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Carbone has made memorable comments since the night he was arrested, when he countered that he was doing at least 130 mph on the LIE when the officer said he was doing around 110.
But his comment about the car didn't seem to jibe with an earlier exchange with Prager. He said before that the car wasn't his and belonged to the company he worked for.
The apparent owner of that company told Syosset Patch last week that he didn't have a business with Carbone and merely rented him office space that was never paid for.
"Quite franky, my friend, I think you need to make more of an effort to find an attorney," O'Brien said before setting a new court date for Wednesday.
Carbone, who said Monday morning that he was paroled in July of 2008, has prior drunk driving convictions in both Nassau and Suffolk counties and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
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